helping to celebrate 20 years on the late show. down in the polls. elliot spitzer 19-point lead in the race for comptroller dwindles to zero. there's mud in this race. snowden's impact. it gives the world insight into the finances of american intelligence and more than a few juicy nuggets. let's go. this is way too early. hey, hey, everybody, i'm almost caffeinated. tgif. i'm thomas roberts. august 30th. we'll have those stories and also talk about nfl settlement on head injuries as well and some news in the enforcement of the federal marijuana laws. a lot to talk about today. we begin in syria. if president obama decides to take action against the assad

regime it appears he'll do that without the support of our two strongest european allies. the british parliament voted against a limited strike against syria. >> why do our allies in qatar and others in the middle east cannot take military action. >> is it in britain's military interest to have a taboo on chemical weapons on the battlefield? yes. our actions won't be derpd by my good friend and ally the american president they will be decided by this government and votes of this house of commons. >> now despite being in support of military intervention in syria, cameron said he would comply with parliament's decision. assad said syria needs a political solution as u.n. inspectors have been ordered to leave the country.

united states has now order a fifth war ship into the med. yesterday leaders of congress were briefed by the president's foreign policy team where they were told president obama believes beyond a doubt that the syrian government was responsible for last week's chemical attack that killed more than 1,000 people. still they were told the president has not made a final decision on the timing or scope of my military operation. more than 100 lawmakers including 21 democrats signed a letter saying president obama needs authorization from congress before moving forward with air strikes in syria. so there's more fallout to talk about from the edward snowden leaks. "the washington post" has obtained new details about what it describes as a black budget for the u.s. spy agency. here is a list of some of their revelations. the u.s. has spent more than half a trillion dollars on the national intelligence program following the 9/11 attacks and that inluds 16 spy agencies. for the 2013 fiscal year, $52

billion was all located. the agency is investing in surveillance against key targets of russia, china, cuba and israel. now "the washington post" reported it's withholding some information after talking with u.s. officials who expressed their concerns about risk to intelligence source and their methods. marijuana smoker can breathe a deep sigh of relief as the justice department decides not to challenge laws that legalize the controversial drug. this decision clarifying how the federal government will respond to some of the new laws in states like washington and colorado that make illegal to smoke marijuana for medicinal or recreational purpose. they will focus on different areas of enforcement including selling marijuana to minors and stopping the growth of the drug on public land. now it was last night that new jersey senate candidate cory booker spoke out about that

decision. >> i think that we have this massive problem with pot in our country. it's been done by the over criminalization of pot by our over focus on a drug that is not as dangerous as other drugs identify seen out there. and bringing people together in a nondemagogue fashion is important. former dnc chair terry mcauliffe is beginning to look like favorite. he has 44% support of likely virginia reporters while ken cuccinelli pick ud up 37%. the reasons behind mcauliffe's leads, he's stronger among female voters. looking to another local contest, elliot spitzer may be falling back to earth in race for new york city comptroller. a quinnipiac university poll had spitzer with a lead two weeks

ago shows this race in a dead heat, 46-46. scott stringer has taken every major newspaper endorsement and according to the poll spitzer has seen his backing among african-americans fall way. stringer's campaign is targeting spitzer's controversial past a topic spitzer has avoid. an announce mailer reads, anyone else who committed elliot spitter's crimes would go jail. it's a reference to the former governor's prostitution scandal. the spitzer campaign pushing back releasing a statement scott stringer is not man enough to put his own name on these false attacks. as we promised let's talk about the nfl story with that settlement for former players that claim head injuries from their time in the league the total being $765 million. it claims it glorifies the big hits of the game. the nfl doesn't admit liability.

4,500 players are involved in this settlement but it will ultimately cover anyone who is retired when it's approved by a federal judge. most of this money, those goes to pay outs to the players but 75 million goes into research which some think is the most important thing. >> it is kind of unsettling that you won't know about what they knew and when they knew about it. and if they did hide it what they are doing now with the research and education and awareness. i look at that, that's more important to me than anything else. >> so we want to turn our anengs to north korea. there's unconfirmed reports that the north korean leader ordered his girlfriend and 11 others to

be killed after they made and sold a pornographic video. the paper cites an anonymous source. we switch gears. time to get caught up on business for better than expected reports on business. all three indices closed in positive territory. we say good morning to cnbc. hi, steve. >> reporter: some interesting stories. the banks seem to be in fine. the federal deposit insurance corporation the banks have just had their best quarter ever. the best quarter on record. they hit profits of $42.2 billion. what is very interesting is the really large banks who are driving the money, very interesting to see that banks with assets over $10 billion only account for 1.5% of the banking sector and account for 82 puerto rico of the profits. massive. as indeed this deal.

many, many years ago we saw consolidation in the u.s. mobile sector going back to the year 2000, vodafone was a big player. now we could have an absolutely mega dealing where verizon communications is looking to buy the 45% of verizon wireless. vodafone owns that 45%. this could be the third largest m and a deal on record. it could be valued at $130 billion. the logic for verizon it's a cat fight. with at&t and other rivals and they want a lion's share. >> tooth fairy inflation. what does that mean? >> reporter: it's quite extraordinary. when you and i were children let's go back a few decades maybe it was a quarter, maybe if we were lucky we got a dollar.

these days it's $5. is it $10? apparently the national average has gone up 43%, 42% in two years. $3.70 per toot. some kids out there are getting 20 bucks, 6% of children are getting $20 per toot. the parental representatives on earth of the tooth fairy who is having to pay out this money. 2% of the children get $50 per toot. i have got three children. at 50 a toot that's $3,000. i can't afford that. >> they don't get to go to university. they get paid for their teeth. tell them now. >> i'll have to tell them there's no santa claus. >> stop the presses. that is totally not true for those children who are up getting ready to go to school here in america.

and the easter bunny is resting as well. but when it comes to the first tooth, i can see where kids get the five or ten bucks. then there it goes down. you get back to earth with a quarter or a dollar for -- >> i want to give them a real strong baseline. they got to work harder. >> let's have the kids focus on this great news about the tooth fairy. thanks so much. all right. so pope francis continues to make headlines for changing the way we think. if you're part of the catholic church he's leading a new path as the head of it. check out this photo. look at this. they are clamoring around. we thought woe have some fun. tgif capturing contest. use the #waytooearly. still ahead on "way too early"

team tebow playing for a roster spot versus the giants. he didn't look too good at first but the south paw warmed up. an office prank goes prehistoric. how these workers handled a dinosaur attack. that story and a check on weather. can you imagine if that thing stormed in here? >> over 80% of the city is flooded. covered with water up to 20 feet in depth in some places. [ male announcer ] when you have sinus pressure and pain,

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tim tebow, a bit rusty to start. he gets sacked five times. once the lefties warmed up tebow's time. he throws two touchdown passes including this connection with clinton simms. 52 yards for the touchdown. patriots win 28-20. college football season is officially under way and we start with north carolina at sixth rank south carolina. the gamecocks heisman candidate looking sluggish after coming off a stomach virus. here's the highlight. south carolina running back runs 75 yards for the touchdown. he finishes with 115 yards and the gamecocks go on to win that 27-10. to nashville for ole miss and vanderbilt. vandy up three. on le miss has a late touchdown.

they win 39-35. okay so to baseball now. the a's were u67 4 on the tigers in the bottom of the ninth when torii hunter comes to the plate. >> swing and a high drive into deep left center-field. that ball is gone! it's a walkoff home run for t i tori. >> check out what happened in the post-game interview, though. >> try to get out the park. >> oh, here we go. >> it actually feels good. >> that's awesome. you see there hunter gets gumbled, side steps r takes the

bath. he took it like a man. let's get a check on your weather. so that looked good. >> i would rather get gatoraded than gum balled. >> that's a good point. let's talk about who will get wet. it's the holiday weekend. while we get some bad weather in the northeast they can use it out west. >> they need it out west. unfortunately there's no rain anywhere across california so we are seeing firefighters still having to battle this rim fire and take a look at this time lapse. this starts august 24th and goes to the 28th. it starts as flames and then you get the smoke and over time you can see how day after day they are seeing the same thing over and over again. look at how much higher than the trees that smoke is. this is a massive wildfire. it's burning almost about 200,000 acres and it's only 30% contained right now. they really could use some help from mother nature not is going to get it.

it's staying dry across parts of northern california, central california. in the northeast a chance of a few isolated thunderstorms but most likely saturday night. most of the day saturday actually looks okay. sunday maybe not so much with a lot of clouds and showers. for right now we do have our heaviest rain well to north of michigan. we have a couple of lighter showers. other than that things are pretty quiet. later on this evening we'll see a chance of stronger storms especially across north dakota with isolated large hail being the biggest threat. temperatures are hot right through the middle of the country. it will feel like it's 100 to 105 especially across iowa where we have heat warnings and heat advisories in effect. as we start off the holiday weekend we're looking at temperatures to be hotter. that white line outlining all the areas that will be above 100 degrees. in the northeast, again, the showers and thunderstorms should hold off until much later in the day and feel like summer again. new york city should top out around 88 degrees. more humid too. even though we're getting into

that turn of season, once we get to labor day i feel summer is over but it will still be pretty nice. coming up at the top of the hour on "morning joe," president obama loses his top ally as the u.s. moves closer to military action in syria. does this mean america will be going it alone? when we come back we'll huddle around the watercooler. letterman's best bud stops by the late show and bill murray knows how to make an entrance. wait until you see this. back with much more.

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okay. so at the top of the show we talked about the new revelation from the u.s. spy agencies black budget. if you want to sound smart you can say spending on intelligence has doubled since 9/11. the u.s. intelligence community employs over 107,000 people. time to gather around the watercooler. lewis is fresh back from detroit. you had to give the car back. >> i was crying all night last night. let's start in japan where their take on candid camera is not for feint of heart. take a look.

that's unbelievable. i don't know what i would have done there. there's some new criticism of miley cyrus performance and coming from an unexpected source. the man they say created the original number one hand is joining the chorus, steve trammell said she took an

honored sports icon and degraded it. he came up with the number one finger to support his high school basketball team back in 1971. y don't know about you, but i think can we take a dog in the street fight. this video shows you otherwise. you see there the dog is obviously the aggressor. this grate dane chased down the kangaroo. they face off in a swamp. i expect this to be a one sided affair but the kangaroo just takes that dog. it's unbelievable. the kangaroo had one may have advantage arms and a great boxing stance. you can see it. using them to keep the dog at bay. now i know why a boxing kangaroo is a national symbol in australia. last night david letterman invited bill murray to help him

celebrate his 20th anniversary on the late show and bill murray took it seriously. >> ladies and gentlemen please welcome the one and only bill murray. bill. ♪ >> i didn't know you had a dog. >> i had to get something that went with this outfit. >> thomas, that was unbelievable. >> that dog was cute.

now i'm standing like this because i'm waiting for a rapper to come in behind me. i'm prone to discussion on live television and i don't want that to happen. >> keep your eyes out. just want to make sure. >> i think you'll be okay. for your sweet 16 we'll get you one of those cars, lewis. >> i need one of those cars. i need you to be generous. >> will. >> buy me up with of those things i'll be your best friend forever. >> that's all it takes? i'm on it. still ahead on "way too early" your best and creative captions for this picture of the pope saking a selfie. [ whispering ] shhh. it's only a dream. and we have home insurance. but if we made a claim, our rate would go up... [ whispering ] shhh. you did it right. you have allstate claim rate guard so your rates won't go up just because of a claim.

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let's get down to it because earlier in the show we asked for your best and creative caption for this picture, the pope opposition for a selfie. >> mike has captioned, okay one more selfie then we have to film our had a legal shake.

>> okay everybody, say cheese. >> and our own ben says leave room holy spirit and ray's, i don't remember seeing that episode of hannah montana. >> leave it on a miley cyrus reference? >> yep. >> that sets us up perfectly. we got to go. time to get to twerk. "morning joe" starts right now. >> good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it's friday, august 30th. take a live shot of new york city. 6:00 a.m. you can tell fall is coming. >> how can you tell? >> first of all it's getting cooler. also, we've got calendars in our house and it says it's the end of august. third, it's -- it's taking a while for the sun to get